• 'Every sport needs its champions' says veteran trainer
• Star colt is 'growing up and maturing' for season ahead
Frankel can help to broaden the appeal of horse racing when he returns to action next month, according to Sir Henry Cecil, trainer of the exciting and unbeaten colt. Cecil spoke on Monday of his hope that the horse will be even better this year than last, when he was a devastating winner of the 2,000 Guineas, and said he would let the horse tell him if and when the time comes to step him up to a mile and a quarter.
Despite his obvious reluctance to compare Frankel with the sport's all-time greats, the trainer is keenly aware of the excitement surrounding his stable star. "Every sport needs its champions, right?" Cecil said. "Not just for the racing public but for other people who aren't interested in racing and get to learn about it from word of mouth and from the television.
"Watching Andy Murray has made me more interested in tennis and [Rory] McIlroy in golf, even though I can't play it. I enjoy watching the best and everyone likes to see stars.
"Frankel is in the public eye and it would be wonderful if he could continue to win races because it's important for the sport. When he comes to the races and even when he walks into the parade ring, people are lining up to see him.
"People want to see something good. They want to see Andy Murray winning Wimbledon or Kauto Star, if Paul [Nicholls] decides to carry on with him, racing again. People take an interest in Frankel. They want him to do well."
Hitting full stride, Cecil was unable to stop himself from gently reminding his critics that decisions over Frankel's future remained his to make.
"They say, 'Why didn't Henry Cecil run him in the Derby?' when I know if he'd run at that stage of his career, he'd have fallen flat on his face in the home straight," he said. "They ask why didn't I run him at six furlongs. My response is that, if you trained him, you wouldn't be asking such a stupid question."
However, despite Frankel's apparent invincibility last season, Cecil said he remained conscious that the horse was always "only one bad step away" from the end of his career.
"The way Frankel is settling better, there's every reason to think he could be even better as a four-year-old," he said. "He's growing up. He's maturing. But you never know what's around the corner.
"Lester [Piggott] worked Simply Great before the [1982] Derby and said, 'This will be my easiest ever winner of the race.' The next day he tripped, hit his front leg with his back leg and cracked his knee. These things happen."
Cecil was in London to promote Sandown's two-day mixed Flat and jump meeting at the end of the month, the Bet365 Ultimate Celebration.
Alongside him was Nicholls, whom he had previously met only once, and then briefly, but with whom he appeared to find a great deal of common ground.
While Cecil questioned whether there are enough "very, very good horses" among his 150-horse team to challenge for a championship this year, Nicholls was wondering whether he can hold on to the champion's title he first won in 2006 and has held ever since.
"We're £10,000 behind Nicky Henderson but that's not much," he said. "Nicky's a good mate and you could certainly argue that he really deserves to win it this season but I'm not going to be waving the white flag. We've got plenty of horses left to run at meetings like Aintree and Sandown where there is still decent prize money to be won."
A team of female jockeys will for the first time take part in this year's Shergar Cup at Ascot on 11 August. Hayley Turner, a fixture in the British team at the event in recent years, will be joined by the Canadian pair of Emma-Jayne Wilson and Chantal Sutherland, who took part in Saturday's Dubai World Cup."